School management system comparison 2026: MIS, suites and timetabling for England and international schools

A school management system comparison in England starts with one question: which system will make your school census return? Every state-funded school, from maintained schools and academies to pupil referral units, has to complete the census for the Department for Education each term, and DfE's guidance has schools generate the return in their management information system, the MIS. For most state schools the real choice is therefore between MIS products such as Arbor, Bromcom and SIMS, and everything else is chosen around that MIS. Registered independent schools do not complete the school census, so they choose more freely: iSAMS, Tes Engage and Veracross are built for them, and Faria's OpenApply and ManageBac+ cover admissions and learning in international and IB schools.

Below: the four kinds of system, each product as its supplier's website describes it (checked 11 October 2026), one table, and where Bildena School fits and where it does not.

School management system comparison: four kinds of system

• The MIS: the school's core record of pupils, staff and attendance. It produces the census and the Common Transfer File (CTF), DfE's file for pupil data when a child moves school. In England, for example, Arbor, Bromcom or SIMS; in independent and international schools, iSAMS or Tes Engage.
• All-in-one suites: the MIS plus finance, HR, payments, admissions and a parent app from one supplier; most MIS suppliers now sell this way. The US equivalent is the student information system (SIS).
• Communication and parent apps: messages, consents, trips and payments, usually part of the MIS package.
• Timetabling tools: the timetable, options blocks and cover, such as Nova T6 with SIMS or TimeTabler in Arbor's suite.

What matters is which system holds the master copy of the data; in an English state school that is the MIS, because the census comes from it.

England: the MIS and the census

The census is a statutory duty under section 537A of the Education Act 1996 and is taken three times a year; the 2026/27 census days are 1 October, 21 January and 20 May. Schools generate the return in the MIS and submit it to DfE through its COLLECT system, some maintained schools through their local authority. What the return contains is in the MIS and the school census.

Since 17 July 2026 DfE has also published Core Principles for school MIS procurement, rules on security, pricing, contract length and data for new MIS contracts signed before its MIS framework launches, expected on 1 September 2027. What they ask of a supplier, with demo questions and a checklist, is in choosing a school management system.

Arbor

Arbor Education, in London, calls Arbor “the UK's most popular MIS and school management software” and says it is used by over 12,500 schools and trusts. Its School Management Suite combines the cloud MIS (in versions for schools, trusts, local authorities and independent schools) with Arbor Finance, the education HR system SAMpeople and TimeTabler. The MIS handles the census, and the parent app takes payments. Prices are not published; the website offers a demo.

ScholarPack still appears in older comparisons, but Arbor announced on 12 February 2025 that it would discontinue ScholarPack and Integris in February 2026 and support their schools in moving to Arbor; scholarpack.com now redirects to Arbor's website.

Bromcom

Bromcom Computers plc, in Bromley, calls itself a “cloud-based School MIS Provider” and says it serves 5.6K+ schools and 390+ multi-academy trusts. The MIS and its free apps are hosted on Microsoft Azure; finance, the MyChildAtSchool app and web timetabling are built in. Bromcom says the MIS “conforms to all of the DfE's statutory data collection requirements”. It is “priced on a per-pupil basis” by type of school and package (Standard, Plus, One-Stop Shop); the amounts are not published. A demo can be booked on the website.

SIMS

SIMS now belongs to ParentPay Group, and the old ESS SIMS address redirects to parentpaygroup.com. The group says more than 10,000 schools use SIMS and that it is rebuilding SIMS from the ground up as a cloud-native system, SIMS Next Gen. Its “Optimise” package lists census and statutory returns, timetabling, options and cover, and “hosting and support (optional)”; the group's timetabling product, Nova T6, “integrates seamlessly with SIMS and other management information systems”. The parent and student app is in a separate package. Prices are not published; a demo is offered.

Independent and international schools

Registered independent schools complete the school-level annual school census instead of the pupil-level one. That leaves the main system open. These products are built for independent and international schools:

• iSAMS (“iSAMS by IRIS”): “100% cloud-based school management software”, used by 1,800+ independent and international schools by its own count, covering the MIS, admissions, finance, HR and payroll, payments and communication. Prices not published; demo.
• Tes Engage (Tes Global Ltd): a “School Management Information System” for “independent, fee-paying, and international schools”, with admissions, fees, attendance, exams, finance and a parent app; hosting is not stated on its product page. Prices not published; demo.
• Veracross (Wakefield, Massachusetts): a web-based “one-person, one-record school management platform for private and independent K-12 schools”, used by 3,300+ schools in 70+ countries by its own count, covering admissions, accounting, tuition, health and fundraising. Prices not published; demo.
• Faria Education Group (10,000+ schools in 155 countries, it says): OpenApply handles admissions “from enquiry to enrolment” and connects to platforms such as PowerSchool and iSAMS; ManageBac+ is a learning platform for the IB programmes and British, Cambridge and American curricula. Prices not published; demo.

The United States, briefly

American schools compare student information systems, and state reporting usually runs through the SIS. PowerSchool describes software for “over 60 million students in 90 countries”, with its SIS, Enrollment, ERP and the Schoology learning platform. Infinite Campus gives 11 million students, 3,200 districts and 46 states. Skyward offers a K-12 SIS and ERP and lists state and federal reporting among its services (its website did not respond on 11 October; we read the archived copy of 4 October). None of the three publishes prices. Bildena makes no state or federal return itself; from the timetable it prints sheets that prepare the course and staff figures for some of them, such as California's CALPADS, Texas's PEIMS and the federal Civil Rights Data Collection. More on Bildena School for US schools.

The comparison at a glance

System	Type	Focus, as the supplier describes it	Hosting	Prices published	Trial or demo
Arbor	MIS and suite	MIS with census, finance, HR, payments, parent app, TimeTabler	cloud	no	demo
Bromcom	MIS and suite	MIS with statutory returns, finance, parent app, web timetabling	Microsoft Azure	per pupil; amounts not published	demo
SIMS (ParentPay Group)	MIS and suite	census and statutory returns, timetabling, options and cover, parent app; Nova T6 for timetabling	cloud-native, in its words	no	demo
ScholarPack	primary MIS	discontinued February 2026; schools offered a move to Arbor	–	–	–
iSAMS	MIS, independent and international	MIS, admissions, finance, HR and payroll, payments	cloud	no	demo
Tes Engage	MIS, independent and international	admissions, fees, attendance, exams, finance, parent app	not stated	no	demo
Veracross	school management platform	one record per person: admissions, accounting, tuition, health, fundraising	web-based	no	demo
OpenApply · ManageBac+ (Faria)	admissions · learning platform	admissions and CRM · planning, assessment and reports for IB and other curricula	online	no	demo
Bildena School	school management with the timetable built in	timetable, cover, registers, letters, grades, fees, enrolment	in the browser; data centre in Germany	yes: €5 per student a year	free month, no card

Checked on 11 October 2026 on each supplier's website. Prices and packages change; the written quote is what counts.

What to compare, beyond the feature list

1. Who makes the statutory return. In an English state school, the MIS. Ask every other supplier how data moves between it and the MIS.
2. Where the timetable ends up. The MIS needs it: lessons are registered there, and the spring census asks for class information at a selected time. Ask which file carries the timetable into your MIS.
3. The price for your size over three years. Of the suppliers above, only Bildena publishes its prices; under DfE's Core Principles an MIS supplier must state what the core price includes before you sign. Get it in writing.
4. A demo or a trial. On the suppliers' websites we found demos, not free trials. Ask to see your own data.

Where Bildena School fits, and where it does not

Bildena School is school management software with the timetable built in: automatic timetabling, cover, the duty rota and course choice; records, registers, absences and behaviour, letters and consents, the calendar; grades, reports and support plans; fees, enrolment and wraparound care. Modules you do not use can be switched off. It runs in the browser, also on a smartphone, from a data centre in Germany; a data processing agreement (Article 28 GDPR) is signed at the start, the server enforces each person's role, and a log records who changed what in a child's file. For the UK there are 15 ready-made sample schools across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with GCSE 9–1 and A level scales.

The price is published: €5 per student a year, at least €1,000 a school, every student above 1,000 at half price, every module included; a school of 400 students pays €2,000 a year. The timetable alone, Bildena Scheduler, starts at €490 a school a year. Prices are set and invoiced in euros, plus VAT where it applies. See prices for UK schools; worked examples for primaries, secondaries and trusts are in what a school management system costs.

Bildena fits well if …

• you run an independent or international school with no pupil-level census to make, and want fees, admissions and the timetable in one system. An account can have several payers, direct debits are written as a Bacs Standard 18 file for Bacstel-IP or your bank's upload screen, and agreements are signed electronically.
• you want the timetable, cover and duty rota beside your MIS. From the timetable Bildena prints England's working sheets as PDF, Excel or Word, for checking against the MIS: PPA time against the 10% threshold, directed time against 1,265 hours, infant class sizes, classes as taught in a chosen census period, and hours per teacher, subject and year group for the workforce census.
• a group wants its schools in one view.

Bildena does not fit if …

• you need it to make DfE returns. Bildena produces no school census or workforce census return and does not read or write Common Transfer Files. A state-funded school keeps its MIS for these.
• you need a live link to Arbor, Bromcom or SIMS. There is none: data comes in as a spreadsheet export with its columns matched on screen, and the timetable leaves as PDF, Excel, or an aSc or Untis file. Ask your MIS supplier whether it imports either.
• your tender asks for Cyber Essentials Plus, ISO 27001 or references from years of use. Bildena is new on the market and holds neither certificate yet; the company, Bildena GmbH i. Gr., is still in formation and not yet in the commercial register.

Records stay exportable: subjects, teachers, classes, rooms, students and lesson cards as Excel or CSV, timetables as PDF or Excel.

Frequently asked questions

Which is the best school management system in the UK?

There is no single best one; the systems do different jobs. A state-funded school in England needs an MIS that makes the census, such as Arbor, Bromcom or SIMS. An independent or international school compares iSAMS, Tes Engage, Veracross and similar products. Shortlist two or three and see each with your own data.

Does DfE tell schools which MIS to use?

No. DfE requires the census return, not a particular product. For new MIS contracts signed before its MIS framework launches it points schools to its Core Principles, and once the framework is live academy trusts must buy their MIS through it. DfE removed its own MIS comparison table in May 2024 “while the content is updated”.

What is the difference between an MIS and a school management system?

The MIS is the statutory record the census and the CTF come from. A school management system is the wider term: usually an MIS plus finance, payments, admissions and parent communication. In the US the word is SIS.

Can Bildena replace our MIS?

Not in a state-funded school in England, because Bildena does not produce the census or Common Transfer Files. An independent or international school with no pupil-level census can run Bildena School as its main system; test fees, admissions and reports with your own data in the free month first.

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More about Bildena School: start a free month and try every module for 30 days with your own school's data, no card needed. The one-page overview is a PDF download; we send the data-protection pack on request.